"Hand thy gab," he said, between clinched teeth; "what's _thy_
business singing hymns in t'streets? Get along home to bed; that's
more in thy style, I reckon."

The girl was stealing away covered with shame, when Ralph parted the
people that divided him from the man, and, coming in front of him,
laid one hand on his throat. Gasping for breath, the fellow would have
struggled to free himself, but Ralph held him like a vise.

"This is not the first time we have met; take care it shall be the
last."

So saying, Ralph flung the man from him, and he fell like an infant at
his feet.

Gathering himself up with a look compounded equally of surprise and
hatred, the man said, "Nay, nay; do you think it'll be the last? don't
you fear it!"

Then he slunk out of the crowd, and it was observed that when he had
gained the opposite side of the street, the little, pale-faced elderly
person who had been known as Ralph's Shadow, had joined him.

* * * * *

"Is it our man?"

"The same, for sure."